BOROUGH OF POOLE
CHILDREN’S TRUST GOVERNANCE BOARD
MONDAY 16thDECEMBER 2013
The Meeting commenced at 4.45pm and concluded at 6.00pm.
Present:
Members of the Board
Vicky WalesService Unit Head: Children, Young People and Learning, Borough of Poole
Gerry MooreService Unit Head: Children and Young People’s Social Care, Borough of Poole
Phil Hornsby Service Unit head: Commissioning and Improvement, People Services, Borough of Poole
Janine Harris Sylvan First School
Hilary ClarkGP Poole CCG Collaborative
Sandra MooreCouncillor
Carol EvansCouncillor
Janet WaltonCouncillor and Lead Member (Chair)
Teri RobertsDorset Police
Also in attendance
Nick Wharam – Strategic Planning and Commissioning Manager;Borough of Poole
Mic Mason – To take minutes
1. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Apologies of absence were received from:
Jan Thurgood Chair, Strategic Director, Borough of Poole
Sophia CallaghanStrategic director of Public Health
Siobain Hann Commissioning and Partnerships Manager; Police and Crime Commissioners Office
Tracey Harris Parkstone Grammar School
Mandy Goodenough BCHA
Frances Stevens Dorset CCG
Jo PerryHead of Quay School
Sarah LeeHead of Sylvan Infant School
Tracy Harris Head of Parkstone Grammar School
Linda BolandOperational Director, Children’s & Specialist Services, Dorset Healthcare University Foundation NHS Trust
2. MINUTES AND MATTERS ARISING
No matters arising, minutes were signed by chair as correct.
3. UPDATES FROM CHILDREN’S TRUST PARTNERS
No updates
4. EARLY HELP REVIEW
NW gave a presentation to brief on the draft Strategy for Early Help.
A copy of the draft strategy was also circulated.
Discussions took place on;
Levels of need
The diagram on levels of need aligns with those used in Bournemouth and by Health Visiting ie;
- Universal
- Universal Plus
- Partnership Plus
- Statutory and Specialist services
Board members welcomed this approach.
Principles of Early Help
The Board were asked to consider the draft Early Help principles in the draft
Document. In particular those related to;
- Assessment framework
Assessments need to be developed so that they are holistic and continuous throughout the families support.
CAF has been used in the past as a referral form concentrating on one need. Individual services will continue to complete their own assessments, but we will need to clear on sharing and co-ordinating these assessments.
Therefore it is planned to develop a Quality assurance process for assessments.
- Early Help offer to young people
The review has identified the need to co-ordinate services for all young people, including those with the most complex needs.
- Data sharing
Sharing of information is one area that has been identified, specifically data across with health partners. The Early Intervention Foundation and various government policy is giving a clear message that sharing of data is expected between partners. It has been achieved in other LAs so there is no reason for Poole not to be able to reach an agreement.
Next steps
Next stage includes involve wider stakeholders and consider options for improvements to the Early Help Offer in Poole
The EH review will be aligned to other key change programmes such as SEN reform; CAMHS review; etc.
Action
NW to discuss Early Help Strategy and proposed action plans with Pete Windell, and SiobainHannfrom the police and PCC office..
Health partners are not all present at this meeting (apart from HC from CCG collaborative) ; therefore item on data sharing needs to be brought forward for a full discussion at the next meeting.
All Board members to discuss Early help principles with their agencies and partnerships for comment.
5. EARLY YEARS INTERVENTIONS – CHILDREN’S CENTRES
VW explained the challenges in meeting the Board’s priority around Early Intervention in Early Years in that the Children’s Centre focus has changed.
Children’s Centres have a defined ‘core purpose’ which is ‘to improve outcomes for young children and their families and reduce inequalities between families in the greatest need and their peers in Child development and school readiness; Parenting aspirations and parenting skills; Child & family health and life chances’.
Full details are available in the published Report from the All Party Parliamentary Sure Start Group.
Children’s Centres are accountable for results of the EYFSP (Early Years Foundation Stage Profile), breasting feeding rates and parental smoking rates, etc. These measures are monitored with the Children’s CentresInspections, therefore every Centres need to know the families in their areas and the data which relates to these. At present in Poole the centres get very little information from health.
In Poole we have had 2 recent inspections. The east cluster (Branksome and Rossmore) was inspected in July and received Inadequate mainly due to the inability to have data, therefore perceived as not knowing their families. The West Cluster (Hamworthy and Creekmore) was inspected in November and received a Requires Improvement.
Without data being shared from health, Children’s centre cannot receive a Good. Bournemouth and Dorsethave the same issue.
This is a serious issue for the Poole children’s Services. It is also reflected in the Early Help review.
For example Poole wide Breast feeding rates are good, but in our targeted areas the rates are very low. This is shown in an Ofsted inspection of the centre, but cannot be address with the data and information
Due to the recent inspection, Poole is restructuring the children’s centre cluster areas and staffing. There will be a strong lead for the development of children centres and 2 cluster co-ordinators, with a lead on each key area.
There is currently a consultation on the de-designation of central cluster, with realignment of the centres in 2 clusters. Other centres will become outreach settings for the clusters.
There has also been a review of the Family Outreach Worker services and increase investment in this service. Action plans have also been development to meet Ofsted requirements.
The children’s centres used to receive minimum data set with anonymised information, but these have stopped due to changes in Public Health.
Also required is the live birth data.
Agreement is needed urgently with DHCFT to sign up to a data sharing agreements: names and address of parents on Universal plus must be shared from the health visitors to the children’s centre, and minimum data sets must be restarted.
These are all outlined in the Best Practice report (link above) and have achieved in other local authorities, so is possible. See recommendations on Page 23.
Job Centre Plus must also be a full strategic partner to meet the requirements for Children’s Centres.
ACTIONS
HC – Hilary Clark to raise this issue of data sharing with the CCG
SC- Sophia Callaghan to consider the actions required to increase the Breast Feeding rates
NW – Nick Wharam to raise the issues of data sharing with Dorset Public Health through the pan Dorset Joint Commissioning Group
JW as Chair - Maintain this item on all future agendas for the Children Trust Board until a resolution is found.
6. YOS UPDATES
Currently there is a Bournemouth and Poole YOS and a separate Dorset YOS. A Pan Dorset working group is reviewing the service to look at a joint service delivery model.
It is at the design stage and it is planned to report back with an option paper in April.
7. YOUNG PEOPLE MENTAL HEALTH
This group was requested from the Children trust, to look at the increased demand for support in mental health issues for young people and specifically the pathway into specialist provision (Pebble Lodge and the Quay school) and back into mainstream and community services.
.
The group met for the first time and is planning to report back in April. There is currently no GP rep on the group.
All members shared their experiences in the increases on the demand for support and the belief in the reason behind these.
The emotional literacy staff within school can have a big impact, but this requires ongoing training to cover staff changes.
Frontline staff are often best placed to identify low level need;this requires training with ongoing CPD to future proof the offer of support.
This also has a strong link to the Early Help Review, where workforce development has also been raised as a key theme.
The impact is increasing the demand for Quay School and this will have a significant impact on school budgets and the DSG budget in April.
ACTION
NW - Identify need and discuss at the Pan Dorset Joint Commissioning Group for Children and Young People
8.SAFEGUARDING ISSUES
Cliff Turner has been appointed as the new chair of the LSCB. He will be going through induction process and will attend the Children Trust Board in due time. This will need to be scheduled in the forward plan.
Ofsted inspection –The new inspection regime will focus on Child protection, early help, adoption and fostering, care leavers and the joining up to the LSCB.
The first inspections under the new framework started Nationally 2 weeks ago, and Inspections are relatively unannounced.(effectively one days notice) Poole is planning in advance for this inspection across children’s and related adult services and with partners through the LSCB.
9. FORWARD PLAN FOR GOVERNANCE BOARD
10th February
Annual Planning cycle
Data and information sharing between Borough and Health
YP Health Offer
7th April
Youth Offending Service options report
Mental Health in YP report
Assessment framework for children and families
Families with Futures outcomes
Anti Bullying Protocol
Planning cycle will be on the agenda for February to plan for the whole of 2014.
10. ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Dorset police are working on an Anti Bullying protocol to support parents and young people. TR suggested this item could be brought forward to February Board.
Action
NW to check with Julie Murphy as possible agenda itemfor February.
11. NEXT MEETING
The next meetings of the Board will be as follows:
Monday 10th February 2014
Monday 7th April 2014
Monday 7th July 2014
Monday 22rd September 2014
Monday 15th December 2014
All meetings are 4.30 to 6.30 p.m. at the Civic Centre, Poole
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